Climate change

[ivor]

I hear that argument too.  The problem is the average temperature just doesn't change that quickly.  When it does there are mass extinctions like now.  I think CO2 is contributing to Global Warming but other gases like Methane and R134A are worse.

[Sibling Chatty]

Works for me. All I can ever get to grow is the small red skinned ones that count as "new potatoes" until they get big, so i'll have to have some good baking potatoes...

Otherwise, Idaho's not got a lot going for it. (Both people I know on-line that live there would rather be elsewhere anyway.) I say good riddance to 'em! And they HAVE to take Falwell. And Robertson.
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We have a member and spouse in South Dakota. Get 'em out and that'd be fine with me. Or maybe we could just build them an island somewhere...

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

My grandmother really liked it up there. She used to live outside Boise and she said it was pretty.
An island with a big fence might work. We could stick them on Greenland or something, if South Dakota doesn't work.

I hear that argument too.  The problem is the average temperature just doesn't change that quickly.  When it does there are mass extinctions like now.  I think CO2 is contributing to Global Warming but other gases like Methane and R134A.

True. I suspect we're speeding things up a lot, but I doubt we've done this all by ourselves.

[ivor]

True. I suspect we're speeding things up a lot, but I doubt we've done this all by ourselves.

Hardly worth arguing about.  It's probably too late to do anything anyway.


I omly corrected a missing bracket... Griffin

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I like the send'em to Idaho bit.  I'd also suggest North Dakota-- the cool weather will do'em some good. Give'em lots of time to think about who they are and such.

In fact-- we should make a deal with Canada, and some of their even farther north wilderness areas, put'em all up there.

Then, they can have legitimate reasons to complain about how miserable their lives are.

I also like the idea of sending the lot of'em to the middle of Antarctica.  There're some nice rocky areas that are not snow-covered that they could live on.  They could bask in the hot air that they all spew constantly...

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

but that that ice was recent enough for the planet to still be warming up.

Warming or melting? 

[Swatopluk]

I also like the idea of sending the lot of'em to the middle of Antarctica.  There're some nice rocky areas that are not snow-covered that they could live on.  They could bask in the hot air that they all spew constantly...

That would bring them nearer to their beloved emperor penguins.
The question is, do the penguins deserve such neighbours?

[ivor]

They could carry the Emperor Penguins over rough terrain caused by iceberg collisions.  We could make it a game or something.  That should keep them entertained and give them a good goal in life.

[Swatopluk]

Wouldn't that be interference with the ineffable plan.
And what happens , if they find out about the gay penguins?

[Outis the Unready]

On a related note, we're so damn warm here because Lake Erie is too damn warm.

Lake Erie is too damn warm in part because of general warming.

BUT, for the most part, Lake Erie is too warm because of well documented, well studied human caused introduction of heated water into the Lake.

The same thing that helped make the lake so very polluted in the 1970s is at fault here- it's a giant lake with very little water (at its deepest, it is 50ft.)

This is not some nebulous water warming caused by something exotic and invisible...

We know exactly what is causing it, and the views now are exactly the same as they were in the "lets dump solvents into the lake" days- that the lake is big enough to take it, unaffected.

Ignoring CO2, Methane and the rest, the fact remains that you can only add so much heat into a mostly closed system without heating the system up.

We already have to deal with natural additions of heat to the system- fires, volcanoes, etc, and we're pretty sure (again, without discussing the CO2 stuff that bothers some people) that times of geological stress in the past have been crap for the human race.

Therefore, we can be pretty sure that adding heat to the system in completely unregulated quantities is crap for the human race...

We need to be researching how to disperse extra heat, not kvetch about what is causing the most heat....if for no other reason than because a big honking geologic unshift is enough to knock humanity's effect on the climate right off the radar.

People will make plans for a big honking asteroid, but not for what might happen if 5 of the Earth's massive volcanoes erupted close to each other in time, which anyone who studies randomness knows is just as likely as unlikely (maybe a little more likely, actually.) 

And for the record, that warm lake made me fall down, so I am still mad at global warming, and YES, a temperature rise of 10 degrees in one lake is global warming- it effects the whole, bloody system. It's all connected.

Proacticity is needed, not reactivity....anyone up for flooding the Sahara? (It was that way before!)

[Bluenose]

I just had an evil thought. 

Lets put all these nutters in a nice remote place where they can't do any harm, maybe Idaho. I don't know, but somewhere pretty far from everywhere else, so maybe South Georgia Island or something.  Anyway, then, since they also tend to be the ones who think that we are in the "end time" we agree with them and say that the scientists have worked it out and they are right, it is the end time and the final date is in 2036.

Then we do all the work on Asteroid Apophos and instead of making it miss the Earth, we give it just the right nudge so it hits the Earth - right where we put the twinks.  Then they get to have that apocolyptic feeling they all seem to want and we get rid of all the loonies all in one fell swoop!

We can do it!  Just give me the controls of that nudge motor!  Mwahahahahahaaaaar!



Sibling Bluenose

[Swatopluk]

Additionally the dust stirred by that will have a cooling effect on the Earth. Just one problem: the ozone layer would get it too.
Are we willing to accept increased skin cancer rates in exchange for getting rid of the current generation of loonies?

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Additionally the dust stirred by that will have a cooling effect on the Earth. Just one problem: the ozone layer would get it too.
Are we willing to accept increased skin cancer rates in exchange for getting rid of the current generation of loonies?

Let's us all buy stock in SPF40 skin products, and take that chance.  In a generation or three, the ozone will rebound (as long as there is free oxygen and the sun is shining, it will rebound eventually).

And think of all the lovely new mutations a few years of increased ultra-violet will produce--make for interesting living.

I seem to recall reading somewhere, that in the past, the ozone was depleted by volcanic activity for a time (or else the sun had vastly increased ultra-violet output). 

Either way, we can get in the habit of wearing long sleeves, can we not?  Adapt or perish. 

[Swatopluk]

Last time that happened was about 9500 years ago, when a broken-up comet hit the earth. Some believe that this event gave rise to the universal flood myth (though the biblical one is derived from a local event in the Gulf much later). Interestingly many of these myths also claim the occurence of mutants in connection with the event and also the typical rain of concentrated acid, when an asteroid/comet hits the sea producing HCl from the salt and HNO₃ from burnt air ("burning rain of blood" is a perfect description of this).

[Outis the Unready]

You know, I went to the hospital last night and it turns out that global warming sprained my back. I therefore am allowed to totally scream at global warming.